Cant get sound working

robfosters · 28 Oct 2017 at 17:13

I just cant get any sound from my PC. I Have reinstalled the realtek drivers for my motherboard and all the right playback devices are there. However, it does not seem to recognise that i have my speakers plugged in. It does the same with headphones. Sometimes it does recognise them, but I still get no sound. I also get no sound if I plug the speakers into my monitor and send audio via the graphics card. I have tried everything to no avail.

Any ideas or does it sound like my audio chip is borked? If it is, it's not disastrous as I can pick up a Xonar soundcard for £30. Just want to make sure before I part with any readies

Marsman · 28 Oct 2017 at 19:13

I wonder if a Windows update has caused some grief. I've lost count how many times I've seen a Win10 update cause sound problems for someone. If you're getting no audio from your GPU to your monitor, after setting the GPU to default audio device, it could very well be an update has mucked something up.

For the onboard audio, it certainly could be a hardware issue, but if you can't get audio from your GPU either, that possibly suggests something more than borked onboard audio is going on.

robfosters · 29 Oct 2017 at 12:41

I can get sound through my card, I just needed to select the monitor in settings. That means that its just my motherboard that is not recognising speakers or producing sound. It seems as though it may well be faulty. But at least I have sound now by going through my monitor and plugging speakers into the headphone jack on the monitor.

VonScar · 29 Oct 2017 at 21:07

Hi,

Do you by chance have an NVIDIA GPU?

Every time I reset my graphic drivers, the sound from my NVIDIA card kicks in. I have to reset the speaker output via my volume icon in Windows 10. I use SoundBlaster Z and have to select it manually. As you have installed drivers, I suspect Windows has changed your output. Proof being you get sound via the monitor.

Regards

Von

robfosters · 30 Oct 2017 at 20:22

VonScar said:
Hi,

Do you by chance have an NVIDIA GPU?

Every time I reset my graphic drivers, the sound from my NVIDIA card kicks in. I have to reset the speaker output via my volume icon in Windows 10. I use SoundBlaster Z and have to select it manually. As you have installed drivers, I suspect Windows has changed your output. Proof being you get sound via the monitor.

Regards

Von

Sorry for the delay in replying. Yep, it's an EVGA 970 SSC.

Marsman · 30 Oct 2017 at 20:57

Just to get the obvious question out of the way; you have set Realtek to default in the Windows sound playback options?

What Vonscar is saying, points to the GPU being set as default audio device by Windows.

Assuming you've done the above, then that can be ruled out.

When you plug in headphones or speakers to the onboard audio, do you get those pop up boxes asking what you just connected?

When plugging something in, the colour coded socket in the control panel should be highlighted. You mentioned about them sometimes not being recognised, so I'm wondering if the above sometimes is not happening.

What about trying other sockets? You can re-assign those. Just select the corresponding device when the pop up box appears. As an example; headphones or speakers will work in the pink 'microphone' port.

Just wondering if there is a fault, if it's specific to the 'green' socket.